HISTORY OF FILM POSTERS By Nathan Brown

What is a Film Poster?A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film. Studios often print several

posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. They normally contain an image with text. Today's posters often feature photographs of the main actors. Prior to the 1990s, illustrations instead of photos were far more common. The text on film posters usually contains the film title in large lettering and often the names of the main actors. It may also include a tagline, the name of the director, names of characters, the release date, etc.

Film posters are displayed inside and on the outside of movie theaters, and elsewhere on the street or in shops. The same images appear in the film exhibitor's pressbook and may also be used on websites, DVD (and historically VHS) packaging, flyers, advertisements in newspapers and magazines, etc.

Film posters have been used since the earliest public exhibitions of film. They began as outside placards listing the programme of (short) films to be shown inside the hall or movie theater. By the early 1900s, they began to feature illustrations of a film scene or an array of overlaid images from several scenes. Other posters have used artistic interpretations of a scene or even the theme of the film, represented in a wide variety of artistic styles.

How Have They Changed?On the left is John Carpenter’s “The Thing” from 1982, and on the right is “The Dressmaker” 2015. The contrast between the two reflects the difference of old and new film posters as a whole. The style of the early 80s and late 90s is very artistic and something to be admired on its own. It’s encoded with references to the film and doesn’t use any actors to draw in attention, just pure focus on the ‘thing’ and what it could be, building hype and interest. The Dressmaker on the other hand is just trying to fit as many famous actors as they can on to the poster to maximise exposure and draw fans in purely on face value, no real thought went into it. Today’s posters show off awards and reviews to win over opinions and audiences without showing them anything interesting. Although today’s audience is meant to be very active (uses and gratification) in deciding what they want to watch, but they appear to be heavily influenced by what other people say (reviews/awards).